Our Inspiration: The Quintet of the Hot Club of France
Hot Club du Jour draws its primary inspiration from a group formed by Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli in 1934, The Quintet of the Hot Club of France. Drawing upon such diverse influences as American swing, Manouche traditions (Gypsy), and French mussette, this ensemble sought to recreate the excitement and spontaneity of jazz music, but using exclusively string instruments rather than the more typical setting of horns, piano, and percussion. Accordingly, the guitar (in a style known as "le pompe") took on the salient role as both rhythm accompanist and ersatz percussionist, working in conjunction with the bass to lay down a solid rhythm over which the soloists could create unbounded flights of improvisation. Django and Stephane were brilliant practitioners in the art of improvisation and, by the late 1930's, the QHCF had become the most influential jazz group outside of the United States.
Gypsy Jazz Music Today
With the approach of war in Europe, the QHCF disbanded and the musicians went their separate ways, occasionally performing together in the postwar years, as both Django and Stephane continued to evolve their personal music styles. Jazz music continued to evolve and change on this side of the Atlantic, particularly in the postwar years. Future incarnations of the music - whether it was bop, cool, free jazz, or third stream, together with the growing academicization of jazz - seemed to leave swing music behind as a relic of the distant past. Jazz music in general suffered a decline in popularity in the wake of the rock, pop, and R&B music trends of the 1950's. However, for the Manouche community in Europe, none of these trends seemed to matter much: for them, there was one musician who invented a musical vocabulary that forever changed the face of Gypsy music, and that was Django.
Generations of Gypsies throughout Europe learned to play guitar, violin and other instruments by listening to a steady diet of QHCF recordings. Many learned Django and Stephane solos note-for-note, just by listening or frequently, by watching an elder play (similar to how an oral tradition gets handed down; notation was not used). It was only a matter of time before some of these musicians came into their own and naturally their music contained the indelible stamp of Django and Stephane's influence in every aspect - phrasing, technique, melodicism and verve. With the advent of child prodigies such as Bireli LaGrene and Jimmy Rosenberg, gypsy jazz began to attract attention in America in the 1980's. Then, a veritable tidal wave of Manouche musicians began to attract the sort of attention they so richly deserved on this side of the Atantic, including Tchavolo Schmitt, Dorado Schmitt, Fapy Lafertin, Biréli Lagrène, Jimmy Rosenberg, Stochelo Rosenberg, Angelo Debarre, Moreno and Patrick Saussois, among others.
Non-Gypsy Europeans, as well as some American jazz musicians took on a close study of the QHCF and brought further attention to the music. Now, Djangofests pop up in every part of the United States, and QHCF-inspired bands are prolifferating, as gypsy jazz reaches an ever expanding audience.
